After you have become familiar with the current topics and messages, you will want to only see the latest posts. Click on "View posts since last visit", at the top right of the IOM Forum index screen for the whole of the board.

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Pedro has done a little programming of the board, and has set the default ordering of messages as reverse order -- that is, newest or most recent first. This setting can be changed, if you prefer, to "normal order", that is, oldest first or chronological order, but this isn't a "sticky" setting, you have to re-select "normal order" for every topic. Pedro has put this facility at the top of the messages list, thankfully, so let's see how it works for the time being.

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What happened to the old topics?

In case you were wondering, the IOM forum software has the facility to automatically remove "old" topics. This has been set up so that, after 3 months of inactivity, a topic and its messages are pruned. So if you see something interesting, copy it straightaway

Who is the board Administrator?
Pedro Egea (ESP) set up and maintains this board. Pedro is the member of the IOMICA Infocomms Sub-Committee with this responsibility. His username here is "Administrator". The Chairman of the ISC is the IOMICA Vice-Chairman (Infocomms), Username "VCinfocomms", and he or she is usually the other Administrator. This office is held by Anders Wallin (FIN).

Where can I get more details on how to use this forum?
If the "? FAQ" icon at the top of the screen doesn't have the information you need, check out the phpBB guide at http://www.phpbb.com/support/guide/. Ignore the first few sections about installation and such, and go to section 4, "Using phpBB".

How can I display some text in nicely aligned columns?
The normal text of a message is shown in a proportion font, so it is more or less impossible to get columns to line up. A way around this is to use the BBCode "code" tag. This does something similar to the "quote" tag, in that it puts the material into an indented box, but this time the text is in a monospaced font such as Courier. When your message displays, the letters and spaces all take up the same room, allowing aligned columns. For example:

If you really do want to show a list of results, for example, it would be easier to prepare the list in a text editor such as Notepad, straighten it all up, copy it, and then paste it into your message.

Another way of doing this is to use the HTML "pre" tag. If you don't want double-spacing, make sure each line ends with a "br" tag, and delete all the 'hard' <enter> or <cr> characters. Put the text inside an HTML "blockquote" pair so it offsets nicely. The result looks like this:
<BLOCKQUOTE><PRE>Pos Name Points Design Sailno<BR> 1 Marty 16 Italiko 95<BR> 2 Graham 32 TS2 44<BR> 3 John 33 Gadget 22</PRE></BLOCKQUOTE>How do I find out more about BBCode, bulleted lists, and so on?
When you compose your message, in the left-hand panel you should see, under "Options", a line that says "BBCode is ON". Click on "BBCode", and it'll take you to a tutorial.

Can I use HTML tags?
Yes, the following tags (only!) are enabled in the board, but can be disabled in a message if you set that option. Note that some of these tags duplicate the function of some BBCode tags, in order to allow extra formatting within the tag by the use of attributes.
<HR WIDTH=50%><CENTER>b, i, pre, center, hr, p, br, sub, sup, blockquote, code, img</CENTER><HR WIDTH=50%>Does the Executive Committee and the World Council use this board? I can't see anything of their work.
Yes, there are a number of "hidden" forums on this board. One set hosts the IOMICA Executive Commitee discussions and resolutions, and another set hosts the IOMICA World Council. This means that the Exec and World Councils members, as members of the IOM General forums, always see all posts. The two usergroups, "Exec" and "WC", are also "hidden". Each NCA moderator is usually also a member of the World Council usergroup.

Why isn't there an "E-mail" button against my name on the Member list or on any of my posts?
You have chosen to prevent anyone e-mailing you by saying "No" to the line, "Always show my e-mail address" in your profile. Now this line is a little misleading, in that your e-mail address as such is never shown in this forum, even if you said "Yes". The line should say, "Allow users to e-mail me", or perhaps "Show my e-mail button".

If your e-mail button is shown on any of your posts or on the Member list, users click on it to send you an e-mail (in the same way that they click on the "PM" button to send you a private message), but never see your address. Only if you reply using your e-mail software will your actual address then be revealed.